1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wheeled infant carriages or designed to carry an infant smoothly and safely while walking, jogging or traversing uneven, rough, or unpaved terrain. And more particularly to a design conveniently portable and collapsible.
2. Description of The Prior Art
Traditionally, baby strollers have been used to push an infant slowly on a relatively hard, smooth floor or paved surface. As a result, the strollers were made with short wheeled bases and small wheels. These strollers work well at slow speed, but are extremely unwieldy and even dangerous on rough surfaces or at higher speeds.
As parents have become more health conscious, jogging and fast walking have become popular pastimes. Because baby strollers were not designed to be operated at high speed or on rough terrain, it was infeasible for a parent to jog or walk fast using a traditional baby stroller. Even for non-jogging parents, the need for an improved baby stoller has been apparent. The small, plastic wheels and short wheel bases customarily used for the baby strollers are almost useless when it is desired to walk with an infant in a grassy park or on a rough road or sidewalk. Parents end up not walking with the infant at all or only walking in limited areas.
Recently, all-terrain baby strollers have been designed to overcome these problems. These strollers typically employ much larger wheels and longer wheel bases. The stroller frame and frame connections are constructed to be stronger and larger to handle the heavy-duty use they may receive. These all-terrain strollers have their drawbacks. The increased size has made them difficult to store and transport and the folding/collapsing mechanisms are time consuming and cumbersome. For this reason, the present invention provides a quick and easy method of collapsing the stroller for storage or transport.
3. Objects and Advantages
Collapsible strollers are not a new concept. The collapsing process for most strollers, however, typically requires the use of both hands, often requires the application of large forces, and may be dangerous due to scissoring of truss-like members of the stroller structure. Most collapsing mechanisms are not intuitive to the user and require a lesson from a sales person or studying of instructions. Often, the parent is holding packages or the infant in one arm and has only one hand free to collapse and stow the stroller. The present invention provides an intuitive folding mechanism, requiring only one hand to collapse or unfold the stroller. Safeguards assure that the stroller collapses only when desired by the parent. Further, there are no pinch points or scissoring members in the folding mechanism.
When jogging with a conventional all-terrain stroller, the axle connecting the two rear tires often impedes the stride of the jogger (especially joggers with long strides). In the present invention, the rear wheels are cantilevered, giving the jogger clearance for a long stride.
Other novel features of the design are the use of an over-center mechanism to deploy a sun canopy on the stroller and another over-center mechanism to engage a foot-activated parking brake.